Work with Us! 

Are you looking to spark deeper connections within your team and bring your community together in lasting ways? The Alaska Humanities Forum provides the tools and training to facilitate growth and develop skills that will strengthen your organization and impact.

For over 50 years, we have built deep, trusting relationships across sectors, regions, and generations. Our team has designed and facilitated hundreds of workshops for youth, educators, businesses, people-serving professionals, and community members. These experiences have helped thousands of Alaskans listen more deeply, navigate hard conversations with courage, and strengthen trust in their communities—outcomes confirmed through participant stories and consistent post-workshop feedback. The Alaska Humanities Forum staff bring deep local knowledge and statewide networks, strong administrative capacity, project management expertise, a commitment to cultural responsiveness and community-driven approaches to our workshops.

Learn more about our offerings below: Strengthening Community Leadership Workshops, Cultural Responsiveness Workshops, Community-Engaged Planning Workshops, and Youth Workshops.

"The format was collaborative and inviting. Every detail was curated, every pause intentional. It balanced professionalism with vulnerability, and structure with space...Through [AKHF's] workshops I've gained the confidence and empathy necessary to lead wholeheartedly, and have had the opportunity to expand my network organically."

Strengthening Community Leadership Workshops

If you want to strengthen your team and develop compassionate leadership:

The following workshops help participants plan and facilitate dialogues that uncover shared values; engage across divides by centering listening and understanding; and share stories that inspire hope, connection, and collective action:

• Storytelling to Build Community: This one-day workshop helps participants uncover their calling and share their purpose through storytelling. Each person develops a Public Narrative—Story of Self, Story of Us, and Story of Now —to inspire hope, build connection, and call others to collective action.

• Leading Conversations that Build Community: This two-day workshop equips participants to plan and lead conversations that bridge divides and strengthen community. Through hands-on experience, participants learn how to design conversations, facilitate with purpose, and give and receive feedback.

• Depolarizing Conversations to Build Community: This two-day workshop equips participants with the skills to constructively engage with their neighbors across different perspectives, and introduces tools for strengthening relationships during times of conflict and distrust. This workshop focuses on one-on-one interactions and builds a strong foundation for future engagement.

• Facilitating Through Conflict: This half-day workshop explores how conflict can be a tool for building trust. Designed for experienced facilitators, the session offers hands-on practice, reflection, and skill-building to help guide groups through tough conversations with compassion and clarity.

Cultural Responsiveness Workshops

If you want your team to build deeper connections across cultures:

The following workshops help participants explore their own cultural identities, recognize the experiences of others, and develop the skills to engage more thoughtfully across difference:

• Seeing Your Own Lens: This two-hour workshop explores how one’s values, assumptions, beliefs, and life experiences create a lens through which they see and relate to the world around them. Participants are invited to examine their own lens and how it informs their connections with others.

• Fostering Cultural Awareness at Work: This full-day workshop supports participants in reflecting on how they like to give and receive feedback, and what motivates them in the workplace. Participants will leave with a fuller understanding of what they need to feel supported to do their best work and how to work more effectively with their team members by developing individual and team-centered feedback plans.

• Cultivating a Rooted Cultural Identity: This six-session series guides participants through self-reflection and discussion to deepen their understanding of their cultural identity and connection to community. By exploring values, experiences, challenges, and growth, teams build greater self-awareness and resilience—strengthening their ability to collaborate and engage meaningfully in the workplace.

Community Engaged Planning/Strategic Planning

• If you want to get meaningful community input on your initiatives: Our unique and participatory approach fosters trust, uncovers patterns across diverse perspectives, and creates a foundation for collaborative action.

• If you want to host staff retreats or board meetings that strengthen relationships, surface shared values, and spark creative thinking: We help your team reflect deeply and, most importantly, connect your mission to your daily work.

Youth Workshops

The following workshops help middle and high school-aged youth connect across distance & difference, bolster protective factors for mental health, and increase post-secondary success by strengthening confidence in cultural identity:

• Story Works: This two-week series of classroom sessions is a transformative storytelling experience where youth develop and share a personal story, strengthening mental health, peer connection, and language arts skills.

• Thrive Together: This series of afterschool sessions (time varies) supports students to connect who they are – and their community – to their goals and post-secondary aspirations. Sessions have been noted to be particularly effective for English Language Learners and youth who hesitate to speak up in a formal classroom setting.

• AK|Next: This one-week youth leadership academy is focused on developing leadership, cross cultural understanding, and connections between Alaskan youth.

Let's work together

Our workshops are ideally suited for groups of up to 20 participants, though we can accommodate varying group sizes. Workshops can be customized to fit your schedule, delivered in-person or via Zoom, and spread out over multiple days.

We are ready to partner with nonprofits, foundations, government agencies, businesses, and others who share a commitment to strengthening Alaska's future.

For more information, please contact: Vice President of Programs Polly Carr using the contact information below. 

We're proud to have facilitated workshops for: